


Karasuno Crows' Water Polo Girls: The Journey to the Top with the Flightless Crows

by ladyknight_m



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Athletes, Confident OC, F/M, Fluff, High School, Slow Burn, athletics, water polo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:20:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28181538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyknight_m/pseuds/ladyknight_m
Summary: Georgia McNeal and her family emigrated from San Jose, California to the Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan. Having taken transfers for their jobs in the tech industry, her parents uprooted their family of three and enrolled Georgia at Karasuno High School, since it had a girl's water polo team that allowed people to join during any term without a rigorous try out process.Georgia moved to Japan two weeks after her parents, staying long enough in California to help her club team earn third place in the platinum bracket of the 18U Junior Olympics tournament. After getting to Karasuno, at the start of the second term, Georgia realizes her passion for playing water polo can help the prospective girls' team make it to Nationals.Together, her new team will challenge everyone and fight their way through the season to get to the top. Their club's budget problems result in water polo and volleyball splitting several buses, and many friendships ensue.
Relationships: Athletic!OC x Various, OC x Various, Original Character x Various
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	1. The New Student Speaks?

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I'm pretty ok at writing the summary, but I hope you enjoy this random fic with our favorite boys. :)

Karasuno was an ordinary suburban high school. For the life of her, the young American girl had no idea why her parents had chosen this prefecture, to relocate to. Both of her parents were geniuses in their respective fields, and now worked remote from their separate home offices. Occasionally they would carpool into Tokyo together for important meetings and projects, but it made more sense to the girl that they should've selected a home closer to their office.

They’d uprooted from Silicon Valley in California, the tech capital of the U.S., and moved to Japan. Her mother cited the importance of global experiences and cross cultural exchanges during puberty as supporting reasons for their cross-Pacific move. In addition to her mother’s lessons on global citizenry, her father provided a two paged document, single-space, typed in Times New Roman, and font size 9 of reasons why Japan would boost every blessing and wash away any source of ire and negativity in their lives. 

The list included:

  1. Kyoto Climate Accords
  2. Access to diverse biospheres, and easy travel to more diverse environments
  3. Amazing public transit
  4. Constant cultural development, the inclusion of traditions and modern developments
  5. The 200% increase in salary for both parents, which would lead to the lifestyle that would allow them to travel easily and support their one daughter in every single adventure she wanted.



So, they’d moved to Japan. Georgia had stayed in California for the summer, finishing her club season with her team. Georgia and her friends had been playing on the same club team for 10 years, and they had trained so hard to win at the Summer tournament, Junior Olympics. Since she was going to be a second year by American High School standards, she was playing in the U18 league with her teammates and even though she was smaller than her 17 and 18 year old friends, she started every game and played almost 90% of every single game. They’d fought tooth and nail to get to the top bracket, and then they’d battled their way through Platinum to get to the finals, only to finish 3rd in the end. They’d improved their ranking by 7 places, having finished 10th the year prior, but they’d still fallen short of their goal.

By staying the summer, and not moving with her parents in the winter, she missed the first of her High School experience in Karasuno. So, now she stood before her class (1-4) after the summer break, and the first day of the second term, tanned skin in stark contrast to most of her classmates. Her brown hair was in a high ponytail, her uniform tidy, and her eyes bored as she looked at the sea of students who were too curious about the American girl before them.

There were only things she loved almost as much as her parents, and those were languages and water polo. She currently spoke four languages in addition to English, and she was incredibly thankful for her fluency in Japanese at this exact moment in time, as she mentally gulped before this class of high school students. Yes, she had friends and teammates she’d adored back in California, but they knew that their water bound linguist was a bit obsessive with her two passions. 

Waiting patiently to be introduced, she thought of her team’s 3rd place finish only a few weeks prior, and clenched her fist. Oh how she wished she could keep playing forever. She hadn’t done much research into Karasuno, she knew where it was and how the terms worked, but she didn’t look into sports teams or anything else. Earlier that day, the Principle explained how she’d have to join a club by the end of the week, and that sports were acceptable clubs, but he hadn’t given her a list of clubs or sports clubs she could join. She hoped at the very least that they had a swim team, as she wasn’t very good at anything athletic out of the water. 

“And this is our new student, Georgia McNeal, she’s recently moved here all the way from California.” The teacher motioned for her to step forward, which she did smiling a soft smile. In perfect, crisp Japanese, shocking everyone, she asked them to take care of her and thanked her homeroom teacher for their help. Finding her seat in the back, she smelled the familiar scent of chlorine, and the thrill of the possibilities made her genuinely smile to herself. Karasuno definitely had a pool. 

During the lunch break, several girls approached Georgia to ask questions and exchange general pleasantries. Each one charming and content with the friendly and quiet Westerner. Since the principal hadn’t given her a club list or any hint about organizations at the school, she asked the three girls still sitting with her about sports, did Karasuno have a pool? The girl on her left shot to her feet with excitement, she had strong shoulders and looked like a swimmer. Her name was Ai Miyami. 

“Yes! We’ve got 10 lanes, shallow-deep, with a removable bulkhead. It is 25-meters and has a separate diving well.” Her excitement about talking about the pool was palpable, she was clearly involved on one of the aquatic sports teams. The two other girls nodded in agreement with Ai. One was mousey with small wire-frame glasses, the other tall with Middle-Eastern features. 

“We play water polo for Karasuno - our practices are about to--” Ai saw the pure joy that lit Georgia’s face. They had water polo and three of her potential teammates were in this class! The four of them began to excitedly chatter about positions and gameplay and how long they’d each been playing water polo. Georgia learned that there was no tryout because they needed players, the only requirement was that in order to join, you had to swim a 200 freestyle in under 3:00 minutes. Ai had included, if Georgia joined the team, they would have 10 members.

“We’ve got a decent starting line, and 1 experienced bench player, so someone with your experience would be welcomed and probably given a starting position immediately.” The Middle Eastern girl, Safiya Mahmud, added. She explained that her parents had emigrated from Egypt before she was born. So, yes she was Japanese, but for two weeks a year they’d fly back to visit her grandmother. Hearing this only made Georgia more excited, they had people that could play water polo. She’d built a team from the bottom up before, she could do it again. 

Ai was the starting strong-side attacker, she’d played water polo for almost as long as Georgia. She was a solid player that exuded strength and power. The mousey girl, Kiyoko Emi, was a star swimmer, her 100 freestyle was just shy of breaking 50 seconds, and she was brand new to water polo. Safiya was the starting goalie, and she’d played for five years. Her height and wingspan were so impressive that you wouldn’t have put her in any other position. Her absolute joy was reflected by her new friends, the four of them sparkled throughout the rest of the day, drawing attention from a few other students around you. This being said, Georgia didn’t meet any other people in her class, her time was completely monopolized by her new best friends.

After school, Georgia filled out her club form, submitted it to the school and followed her friends to the pool where the start of the term team meeting was taking place. Unfortunately, she was told that they couldn’t get in the pool today, because the janitorial staff had accidentally shocked the pool the day before, so it was unsafe for use until tomorrow morning. This was something Georgia was not used to, since outdoor pools and indoor pools had different maintenance needs, but it made sense to her in the end. 

Standing alongside the coach and academic advisor, she was introduced to her new teammates. “My name is Georgia McNeal, I’ve played water polo since I was 6. I just finished my club season two weeks ago in California. My position is center defender. Thank you for having me!” Everyone welcomed Georgia with happy smiles and enthusiastic cheers, then they introduced themselves, starting with the intimidating captains. 

The two captains, Himari Matsushida and Akane Minamori were 3rd year starters. Normally, third years did not continue to play after the first term, but their grades were spectacular, their merits outstanding, and they had taken internships over the summer to make themselves more attractive for universities. The two captains were both attackers, Akane stood out because she was left handed, and Himari stood out because of her stature. She was quite tall and her shoulders screamed power. The final third-year, Sara Miyzuki was the original goalie, but now served as the backup goalie. She was delicate looking, with catlike features, making you think that despite her small stature, she was fast and quick in the water. Each girl radiated soft smiles and hard work. They were determined to win. 

The three 2nd years were super cool. They each looked like they could throw down and win. They made you shiver with excitement, the potential so far was amazing. Sakura and Ichika Yui were twins with mismatched eyes, reminding you of beautiful huskies. Sakura had very short hair, her stylish bob brushed her ears, and her bangs laid nicely on her forehead. She was the whole set, she looked ready to wrestle anyone out of her way. Her twin, Ichika, kept her hair long, it was loose and hung around her waist. It was an impressive feat that anyone could grow their hair that long, even more impressive that she was able to tuck it into a cap. She was also an attacker. They’d fought for their starting positions, and maintained their spots in the pool, you could see how hard they worked in their corded arm muscle. The third second year, Yui Yamaguchi, was also a starter, but she’d just started playing and wasn’t bad, but needed to keep improving in order to hold her one against any team with a high pressure defense. 

Those girls rounded out the starting line, Sara and Kiyoko on the bench, and the two remaining starters were, as you noted previously, Ai and Safiya. She knew exactly who she’d replace, she could see it in her minds’ eye. The team had speed, they had power, and everyone was ready to score and move on offense. She was going to fill an important role for the team, they didn’t have a center defender, they had no one to run their defense other than the goalie, and no one to direct the offense other than the center. Georgia would fill that role. Her life revolved around shutting down the other teams’ offense, crushing their hopes.

The Captains then set their expectations for the Fall season, the schedule, what in pool and out pool training would look like, and any other tips and tricks about the upcoming season. Coach Yuna handed out booklets for the weight training workouts and dryland exercises that the girls would need to be familiar with for the fall term. She talked about the morning practice for the next day and what the girls needed to bring for their lockers. Since the break had just ended, she needed to remind everyone of what they needed to have at all times, Ai told you later on that she now had to do this each term, because apparently during the Captain’s first year, one of the second years completely forgot to bring her training swimsuits and since the Coach has given the same spiel about locker necessities to prevent it from happening again.

Finally, the Academic Advisor, Ms. Yamakichi, took the team to their club room. She took her time explaining the importance of the dress code, how to get from the club room to the locker room. She also emphasized the importance of grades. The girls water polo team had the highest GPA of all sports teams, and she would not allow anyone to ruin their status. 

The practice schedule was well-planned, as they had to share the pool with the men’s program, and it was balanced so that they’d never overlap. Practice six days a week, doubles five days a week (weightlifting for 2 days and swimming for 3) and Georgia was so excited! After the schedule was announced, measurements were taken for a training suit and a competition suit. The meeting ended soon after and everyone began to head home. It was a few minutes past five and the group split to walk home. In your conversations, Georgia learned that Safiya lived three houses down from her and almost everyone traveled in the same direction. The twins were the first to split away from the group, after the local grocery store. Everyone petered out eventually, and Safiya was the last one to wish her a goodnight. 

Opening her new front door, Georgia saw her parents, Linda and Robert, were sitting at the dinner tables. Tired but happy, they were surrounded by mostly unpacked boxes and their work computers. They turned immediately towards their one treasure, Georgia. They’d moved in at the beginning of the summer, but still hadn’t unpacked everything. They wanted to get their daughter’s opinion on the layout, since they wanted her to feel included in this life-changing move. Their immediate, shared, thought was that their daughter looked exhilarated beyond belief.

“Hi Mom! Hi Dad!! Did you guys find my water polo box yet?” She dropped her bag at the entryway, slipped off her shoes and into a pair of house slippers, and joined her parents at the table. They had takeout still in its containers on the table, apparently waiting for their only child to return home to eat.

“Yes! We haven't taken anything out yet, but the box is open in your bedroom. This weekend you should focus on setting it up the way you like so you can easily find your things and have a good study space. Your new desk should arrive tomorrow, by the way.” Georgia’s father responded with his soft smile and watching his 16 year old daughter smile brilliantly. 

“I take it you found the water polo team agreeable?” Her mother asked, typing away at her laptop, pausing to look at her daughter, absolute joy radiating off of her. Georgia was incredibly lucky, even though she’d just been uprooted from everything she was familiar with, she knew that her parents loved her and wanted her to be happy above all else. They supported her water polo career, her love of languages, and most of her smaller ventures. They knew she’d given up a lot to move with them to Japan, so they’d done the research they knew their daughter wouldn’t do. She might not have understood why they moved to the Miyagi Prefecture and chose Karasuno High School, but they’d talked to their coworkers and talked to the Principal of the high school about how recruiting worked, what requirements there were, and if she could join the team even if she joined in the second term of the school year. They’d talked with most high schools that had girls’ programs, evaluated the quality they knew their daughter would tolerate and then found the school that would allow her to join and if she was qualified be a starting player even if she joined late. That’s the story of how the McNeals ended up in the Miyagi Prefecture. 

“Yes!! The other three first years on the team are in my class too! I met everyone today, I think I’ll be a starter, they don’t have a defensive specialist. We’ve got morning practice tomorrow, and I’ve got the list of stuff I’ll need to bring for my locker. Did you know that third years are normally encouraged to not play after the first term? Luckily, we’ve got the highest GPA for a sports club at school, and the third years are so involved in everything that they were given an easy pass to play the rest of the year. I don’t have any homework, I was able to get it done during the final class. I’ll try to set up everything in my room tonight.” Pausing to pile her plate high with rice she added the Japanese curry and tempura shrimp her parents had picked up earlier from a local curry shop. 

While eating, she listened to her parents talk about their respective days, they both spoke Japanese, surprisingly not as well as Georgia, but they could easily converse with shopkeepers and coworkers. Her mother had gone for a jog during lunch and found the curry shop, she spent twenty minutes talking with the old man running the shop and had been convinced by the brilliant smells to return for dinner. Robert, her dad, had finished moving the boxes out of the garage and into the house, organizing the garage with his tools and their bikes first so he could use the garage as a staging room later. Later on in the day, they’d both hopped on their computers to do some extra work on their presentations that they’d completed the day prior. Technically they had the week off of work, but when they had free time, they liked to fill it with revisions and keeping up to date with their coworkers. Following that, they asked Georgia about her day outside of the water polo excitement, which always cycled back to water polo. At the end of the meal, she headed upstairs to start and finish unpacking. 

Hanging her uniform up immediately, Georgia changed into sweatpants and the first t-shirt she found. She only had access to the suitcase she’d brought on the flight, so it had her basic toiletries and a several athletic and leisure outfits. Pulling all of her water polo gear from its designated box, she laid it onto her bed so she could pack it into her water polo bag once she found it. Flattening each box, she set them at the foot of her bed, as she methodically went through each box. Clothes either got hung up or put into her sensible chest of drawers, the five pairs of shoes went into the shoe rack in the closet, (two sets of running shoes, school shoes, a pair of casual shoes, and black high heels.) Then she unpacked her books, putting them on her desk and bedside table. Thankful that her dad had built her furniture earlier in the day. Her family had parsed down the clothes, shoes, personal items that they’d take across the globe, and gave away or sold their furniture. She’d kept her e-reader, several books, a few crocheted blankets, and her childhood stuffed animals. In addition, she had several framed pictures of her friends and teammates that she put on her desk. 

Finally satisfied with her layout and general placement. Georgia carried the boxes downstairs, it was much later, and her parents were no longer at their computers, now unpacking and organizing the kitchen and the sitting room. Walking out to the recycling bin, which was beside the garage, Georgia looked up at the dark sky. The stars shone beautifully, it was 8:30, and she paused in the brisk fall evening air. Putting the boxes in the bin, she turned to go back inside when she saw the super tall kid from her homeroom class. What was his name? Why was he out so late on a school night? Watching him walk towards wherever he lived, she noticed his sports bag.  _ Aha _ , she thought, _ he’s on a sports team _ ! Not calling out to the boy, since she could not remember his name for her life, she went back inside. She didn’t see him turn around to watch her go back inside, as he’d been observing her the moment he heard a door open. 


	2. The First Practice

The air outside was chilly, the sun hadn't even considered rising, and many high school athletes had minutes until their alarms booted them from their cozy beds and deep dreams.

Having packed her bag the night before, and folded her uniform neatly in her other bag, Georgia woke up at 4:30 in the morning the next day to bike to school. Her parents had packed her lunch the night before, so, encumbered with three different bags, Georgia rode her bike uphill to get to practice before 5:00 AM. Locking her bike up, she dropped her backpack and lunch box in the club room and ran to the locker room. The Captains were turning on the lights in the natatorium, and Coach Yuna rubbed her eyes as she inhaled her dark roast coffee. Heading into the locker room, the other girls were bleary eyed and putting all their things in their lockers. Georgia picked the locker close to Ai. She was the most awake in the locker room.

“Good morning Georgia!! Happy to swim this morning!?” Kiyoko threw her goggles at her to make her shut up. Georgia had to do a double take when she saw the previously assumed mousey girl in her suit. She was built like a fireplug, pure muscle. She was a few inches shorter than Georgia, but her shoulders and biceps were ferocious. Her school uniform somehow made her look tiny and lithe, when in reality, she was jacked. Pulling on her own second strap, Georgia grabbed her cap and goggles and followed Ai and Kiyoko out to the deck. The captains were writing the workout on the white board, Coach Yuna set out medicine balls in the diving well, everyone chose a lane between lanes 6-10, apparently the boys’ team took lanes 1-5 during morning swims. They were nowhere in sight.

Safiya and Sara went to the diving well and slipped into the water, groaning when the cold water touched their skin. Kiyoko took lane 6 for herself, apparently no one liked sharing a lane with the swimming prodigy. Georgia followed Ai to lane 8, the captains stood behind lane 7 and all of the second years took lane 9. No one went in lane 10, it was closest to the door to the outside, and apparently had a chilly draft. Everyone was in the pool and moving no later than 5:05, and no one got out until 7:15. Instead of letting the girls immediately go shower, Coach Yuna held everyone back, forcing them to stretch out their muscles even after the cool down set. Safiya and Sara looked exhausted from the hour of heavy leg work and the second hour of goalie specific training. Every other girl was red in the face, including Georgia. It had been a few weeks since she’d had an intense swim workout, she’d made each interval, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t been challenged. After stretching for 15 minutes, the girls pulled the lane lines out so they would have an open pool for their afternoon practice. The clock was unfortunately approaching 8:00 AM when everyone was released to the locker rooms to shower and change into their uniforms. 

“You kept up nicely, Georgia.” Kiyoko commented as she lathered her hair with shampoo. Georgia smiled in response, too busy scrubbing her skin with a rosemary and yuzu scented body wash. “That was a bit harder than usual, I think Coach is pissed that the boys didn’t show up.” The rest of the team agreed with her assertion. Georgia was the first out of the shower, and began drying off, since she knew it would take her hair forever to dry if she didn’t stand under the hand dryers for at least 10 minutes. Wrapped in her towel, she listened to her teammates talk about the boys team, apparently it was primarily made up of third years, so it was possible that they didn’t have enough players to have a team for the rest of the year.

“Yeah, those boys aren’t known for academic prowess, and their parents expect them to at least attempt to get into university. I’m sure they had to step away from the club.” Ichika announced, her hair was wrapped in a hair towel, she applied deodorant, and her toothbrush was in her mouth. Each girl multitasked as they got ready for the second day of the term. Georgia was brushing and drying her thick hair under the dryer and had everything but her school uniform’s top on. After her hair was dry enough to not soak her shirt and sweater she applied her deodorant and finished getting dressed. Checking her phone, she read the time off for everyone, “Fifteen minutes until school starts everyone!” A groan left the three third years.

“I promised Daichi I’d go over his presentation notes, I need to run. See you all later.” With that announcement, Himari ran out of the locker room, pulling her last shoe on as she fled towards the club room. 

Akane rolled her eyes in response to the dramatic exit. “If Himari thinks Daichi is going to be on time for that review, she’s utterly hopeless. He’s got morning practice too.” Sara and Yui laughed with the remaining captain. Seeing Georgia’s confusion, Akane elaborated, “Sawamura Daichi is the captain of the mens’ volleyball team. He and Himari are in a group for their English class and are meeting in the home room to go over notes before class. He’s really impressive, so much so that Himari might be a little too into this project.” Georgia caught the second hint, and released a long “Ooooooh”. Everyone laughed at her late realization. They now had 7 minutes before home room. 

The four first years left together for the club room and then their class. Leaving their club room they heard boisterous noises from the club room next door, Safiya muttered, “those are the volleyball boys. They might have 5 brain cells between the whole team.” Georgia had to muffle her snort, and try to prevent the water she’d just sipped from coming out her nose. Behind the four first years, the remaining volleyball boys poured out of their club room and followed your group to the academic building. Listening to them talk made Georgia smile, they sounded so enthusiastic about their club, she wanted to turn around and see who they were, but didn’t want to make it obvious.

“Oh, Georgia. Do you know all the Japanese terms for water polo?” Ai asked her suddenly, turning towards Georgia, the three native speakers belabored the American immigrant with the technical terms for their favorite sport. 

“I will have to make flash cards in home room for this. I’ll definitely help you all get As in English class, sometimes my brain turns off for my secondary languages. So you’ll definitely need to focus in that class.” The four of you laughed, walking into your classroom. Following close behind the four of you, were two volleyball boys, the blonde giant from last night and a shorter boy with dark hair and shy features. The bell rang right as she sat down, looking around the room, Georgia realized what the layout of the room was. Sitting in the last row, she was beside the window and the blonde volleyball boy. Kiyoko sat three rows in front and one seat over, right between Safiya and the other volleyball boy. Ai sat in the front row, middle seat. She later told Georgia it helped stop her from falling asleep in class. For some reason, her home room instructor had allowed students to choose seats through meritocracy, and unfortunately, she’d been the only one to not benefit from it, as she’d joined late. 

“Good morning class, since it’s the second day of the fall term, the student class representatives will be talking about the fall events. You will have to attend at least three events to maintain good standing within the student body.” The teacher continued, the first year class representative stood at their side. Georgia turned towards the volleyball boy, she wanted to ask a question, but everyone was so silent outside of the teacher and the student representative, she wanted to pass a note… but figured it wouldn’t go over well with someone whose name she didn’t even know. His eyes flicked to Georgia’s, his mouth tightened into a line when he realized she had a question and didn’t know how to ask it. Georgia’s eyes immediately flicked forward, and she didn’t look back at the tall blonde for the remainder of the announcements, until the teacher released the students to study and work in pairs.

“Hi, I’m Georgia McNeal, the new kid.” She stuck her hand out to greet him, he stared blankly at her hand, but eventually shook it in return. She recognized that he was probably a smartass genius, and smirked at him.

“Tsukishima Kei, what do you need?” He noticed the smirk and the side of his mouth tweaked upwards.

“Since you sit closest to me, I might have to rely on you for some help. Since I didn’t know your name, I had to remedy that. Also, what did they mean about having to attend events? Can I go support other sports clubs and that count? Or do I need to find more free time to attend stupid stuff?” Tsukishima had to turn away to snort at your questions.

“So, I take it the newbie isn’t full of school spirit?” His smirk was full blown now. Who would’ve thought that the American immigrant who spoke fluent Japanese and immediately joined a sport, and looked the part of the perfect student was not interested in actual school spirit.

“I don’t know if I do or not.. But if I’m going to maintain perfect marks, win every single game we face, and try to appropriately make friends in a new country and…” She trailed off, as Ai had gotten her attention from the front of the room.

“Georgia, pop quiz, what is your favorite offensive shift on a man-up play?” Ai, Kiyoko, and Safiya looked at her, smiling wickedly at their teammate. They had something up their sleeve.

“I prefer playing position 1, and shifting in towards the goalie, drawing the defense to me, then passing to 5 for a straight, close-side shot on goal. Or, the 2-pop where defense follows 2 and then I slam it in.” Georgia had barely paused to answer, they watched her try to auto-translate English water polo into Japanese water polo. 

“See, I told you she was a shooter.” Ai told Safiya knowingly, but she also sneakily winked at Georgia, which only made the American more confused. Why was the wink necessary? 

Turning back to Tsukishima, she asked, “What sport do you play? We play water polo.” She was pretty certain he played volleyball, but wanted him to admit it to her.

“Yeah, Yamaguchi is also on the team with me.” He pointed at the boy between Kiyoko and Safiya. He turned towards the tall blonde when he heard his name mentioned, blushing when he realized he was being introduced behind his back. Georgia waved her fingers at the freckled boy, happy that there were two new people she had officially met outside of the water polo team. 

“Well, if we have to go to three events this term, let me know when you all have games. Mens’ volleyball sounds like it could be entertaining. You can fulfill your obligation to the school and come to our games in return.” She smiled softly at Tsukishima, and unbeknownst to anyone, including Tsukishima, he decided that he would make it to at least one game to watch this random girl that would sit next to him the rest of the year play whatever this water sport was. 

The rest of the day went by without anything special to note, except that Tsukishima and Georgia were put into a group for their Literature class, which resulted in him begrudgingly giving Georgia his phone number. Before they separated for practice, Georgia smiled softly up at the taller student.

“Let’s get this project out of the way as soon as possible so we don’t have to think about it later. We don’t have games this weekend, I’ve got practice on Saturday, but otherwise I’m free. So let’s meet up and get it done if you’re free.” With that she waved politely and ran out of the classroom to catch up with her teammates as they headed to the club room. Yamaguchi and Tsukishima walked to their club room, much slower behind the group of four.

“So, what do you think of the new girl?” Yamaguchi asked, testing the waters, he was trying to understand his childhood best friend’s expression.

“She’s not a nuisance,” was the bland response from Tsukishima Kei.


	3. Who Needs Boys, When You've Got Water Polo?

Once inside the club room, Ai squealed loudly. “Oh my goodness. You were able to get THE Tsukishima Kei to talk more than 3 monosyllables. What is your trick?” Everything made sense to Georgia now, why she’d winked and asked the questions in class, and why she’d tried to leave without her. To try and push the two acquaintances together.

“Oh my… Ai! I don’t even know the kid!! He’s my partner for a project, and hopefully he will come to our games. I told him I’d go to one of his. No! Do not make this weird!!!” The end of her plea was more of a loud groan, the door swinging open with the third years walking in talking loudly.

“Oh, Himari, how was your loverboy this morning?” Kiyoko, the no longer mousey girl, asked her captain boldly. Himari flushed dark, and behind her volleyball boys ran yelling into their clubroom.

“Kiyoko, you’re going to regret those words pretty soon.” An ominous aura began to pour off of their now weirdly embarrassed captain, the four first years shrank back into their lockers. Georgia paused mid bite of her pre-practice snack. “Oh! Georgia what are you munching on?” She asked, much brighter and happier now, no aura surrounding her.

“It’s celery and peanut butter. If I don’t eat anything before practice, I will actually lose my mind.” She awkwardly scratched her head under the intense scrutiny, and then pulled Ai along with her as the two escaped towards the pool, snack abandoned in the trash can.

“No need to run Georgia! We’ve got 10 more minutes before we have to be on the deck.” Ai was laughing as the American dragged her to the pool. 

“I know that, but I need to stretch my shoulders out, and I think Himari was going to eat me alive in there!!” Georgia shivered at the thought, slowing down as they entered the girls’ locker room and began changing into their suits again. Luckily they’d dried enough during the school day, so none of them had to put on cold, damp suits for the afternoon practice.

“Oh, she gets like that whenever anyone mentions Daichi. They’re not an item, but it’s still really fun to rile her up. Akane is the best at getting under her skin, it’s hilarious.” The deck was empty, lights on, but no one in sight. The pool was still set up from this morning, but Ai showed Georgia where they kept the balls and caps, medicine balls, and the weighted belts and polo balls. Georgia stretched against the wall and loosened her shoulders up before the captains led the way onto the deck.

“Coach Yuna is in a meeting with the Principal and the boys’ coach. Apparently the club doesn’t have enough players, so they’re going to assign a second year to be our manager. It’ll be nice, we’ve never had a manager before!” Akane loosened her arms as she talked and smiled widely, a mischievous face appearing in place of her happy face. Everyone listened to Akane and Himari as they set about explaining warm ups and writing them down on the white board. As the girls dove into the water, both the advisor and the coach walked onto the pool deck. Right behind them followed an older gentleman and a young man still in his school uniform, he had shaggy brown hair, blue eyes, and the physique of a swimmer. He was taller, maybe 170 cm, Georgia was guessing as she swam where lane 5 once was. He was probably their new manager. 

The 500 warmup of alternating 100s freestyle and backstroke felt good. It was then followed by a 300 kick and a 300 pull, no equipment allowed. Georgia wasn’t sure if that was because the captains were lazy or if it was because they wanted the girls to focus on their control and abdominal strength. Georgia had her suspicions that it was the first assumption. After the brief swim portion was over, Akane led them through the leg warm up. Laps of front crawl, directional treading, lunges, and then ball control treading (I.e. banana split, over the head wrist passes while treading, etc.) resulted in the team being sufficiently warmed up and ready for further instruction from their coach. 

“Ladies, this young man, Takahiro Enji, is a second year here and now our manager. He played for the boys until recently. Take care of him!” The girls smiled in response to their coach, looked the boy over, and welcomed him to the team, as he bowed and asked them to take care of him.

The practice proceeded without any hitches, it was comfortable for Georgia. She was thousands of miles from her team and hadn’t played or practiced with these girls before, but the structure and content was the same. She loved it. The passing drills went without comment, Kiyoko and Yui needed to improve their accuracy, but they weren’t bad. Safiya and Sara were working up to full court passes, and they made it look easy. Passing with Ai and Himari, Georgia was enjoying the up-slide-up passing drill as they whirled around each other in circles. The familiarity of the movement was comforting. 

After working on basics for a while longer, the team moved onto some driving drills, wet passes and shots on goal. Moving into a drill, Georgia’s team would’ve called “Ambulance” because her previous coach swore that if someone didn’t get it right, then they’d have to be put on an ambulance from exhaustion. Coach Yuna didn’t allow the girls to stop, even if they got it right, and it was exhausting, but so fun. 

“Georgia, why’re you so happy? Are you not working hard enough?” Coach called from the 10 meter mark, arms crossed in front of her, smirk decadently dancing on her face. 

“No coach! Just having fun! This is so hard and feels so good!” Everyone laughed at her enthusiasm, until it resulted in cross pool sprints. They grumbled after that. 

“Don’t worry,” huffed Sakura, “she always makes us do these sprints after that drill.” This encouraged Georgia, since she was worried that she’d caused this punishment. 

Caps were tossed out after that. There were forty minutes left of practice, not including the mandatory cool down. The coach explained the importance of practicing and learning plays while exhausted, Georgia nodded along. Everything made sense to her. They ran through the post-goal set up and then moved into general offensive plays, and finally, they ended with proper man-on-man defense. 

It was fun, but, only having 10 players made it hard to practice offensive and defensive moves since there was no one to apply pressure. Coach Yuna even stated this at the end of practice.

“If I had my way, we would have 14 girls on the team. But, since we only have 10, it makes everything a little harder and will end up hurting us in the long run. Since we can’t practice under game-like pressure. I’m working on getting more bodies for us to play against, but we will see how that goes.” She smiled grimly, the academic advisor piped up at this. 

“Since we now have Enji, we think it’s possible that the first and second year boys might be allowed to practice with us, to fill those rolls. But, we understand that you might not be comfortable with this, so if this isn’t a solution that benefits us, we can find another way to do this.” After she mentioned the potential for practices to have more bodies, and those bodies being people who knew how to play water polo, the girls immediately exclaimed their interest. 

Akane and Himari asked each girl how they felt, everyone said they were fine, as long as the boys played water polo and didn’t try to be perverts. At the mention of the boys possibly being perverse, Enji immediately apologized and explained that they’d never do that sort of thing, and that all they really wanted was to play water polo. 

After everything was said and done, a new schedule was created, one where the boys would continue to train under Coach Yuna, and would work with the girls team, in part to stay in shape until they could have a full team, but mainly to help the girls have a successful season. 

As everyone began leaving for home, Georgia noticed the volleyball boys were also wrapping up their practice. There were a lot more volleyball boys than there were water polo girls, and that fact confused her. Men’s volleyball wasn’t that big where she was from, water polo was, but here, it appeared that the opposite was true. While grabbing her bike from the rack, Safiya in tow, she’d told everyone else to run ahead, she saw the two volleyball boys from their class. Safiya elbowed Georgia in her side, lightly nudging her to take action.

“Hey! Wanna walk home with us?” Georgia called out to them, unfortunately garnering attention from most of the team, which would’ve stressed Georgia out, but she had switched her attention from them, onto her bike lock, which was currently stuck. In English, she began swearing at the lock. Safiya, recognizing some of the words, began laughing at her friend. 

“Didn’t know someone like you would swear like that.” She commented in Japanese, this made Georgia blush brightly, she wasn’t supposed to swear. 

“Uh… yeah I don’t usually but this lock is being so difficult, and I don’t know any good swears in Japanese.” Georgia finally got her lock out from the crevice it was stuck in, triumphantly showing it to the goalie. When she looked up, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were waiting for them at the bike rack. But, alongside them were two other boys. A short orange haired kid and a tall kid with a really grumpy face. 

“Howdy” Georgia immediately greeted them in English, switching over to Japanese after she realized her gaffe. “I’m Georgia, this is Safiya. We are on the water polo team.” Then, nodding at their classmates, after a weird pause from the newcomers, Safiya and Georgia began to walk towards the street. 

“I am Hinata Shoyo & this is Kageyama Tobio, we are on the volleyball team!” The smaller of the two shouted, loudly, in response. Startled, Georgia smiled softly at him, her eyes studying his features. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both. See you both around!” And then the foursome began their walk home. “Is the small one always like that?” Georgia asked, turning to Tsukishima. He couldn’t hide his laugh, which unknown to the four of you, freaked out the rest of the volleyball team. 

“I think she’s a witch” Hinata said as he turned to face his team, they nodded. How had this random girl humanized their asshole middle blocker. The team watched after the group in awe

Yamaguchi laughed along with Georgia, as Safiya told a funny anecdote about her first term at Karasuno. Tsukishima smirked a little at the story. Georgia smiled, she was making friends, and it felt good. They all eventually separated when they got into their neighborhood. Safiya and Yamaguchi parted quickly, citing homework as their reason. Tsukishima stayed behind, from anyone else’s perspective it would’ve given the appearance that he favored the American over his other classmates. This might’ve been true, but it wasn’t the reason he stayed behind. 

“Georgia, we’ve got a practice match on Saturday, so I might be back later than expected. It’s at our gym, so you won’t have to worry about a commute. But I could come over after dinner for our project?” He stated the question so monotone, it took Georgia a second to realize that there was a question being asked. 

“Sure! That works for me, can I watch your match? I’ve never seen men’s volleyball before.” Her response was quick and easy, but carefully worded. Clearly she was auto-translating in her brain.

“Yeah, if you’re free, come after practice if it’s still on going.” The two of them said their goodbyes and parted ways. 

After putting her bike away and heading into the house, she was greeted with a raucous welcome from her parents, who weren’t working, but cooking up some extravagant meal. They both stood in the open concept kitchen, wearing their aprons, they had the stove on and from her vantage point, lots of chopped vegetables. 

“Georgia! Welcome home!! Go wash up, dinner won’t be ready for another 30 or so minutes!” Her mom smiled and waved a kitchen knife in greeting, Georgia couldn’t help but laugh at her parents. She ran upstairs, dropped her book bag at her desk and shuffled down the hall to shower. The team had rinsed off after practice, but nobody had washed their hair or anything. So this was going to allow Georgia to just take her time & soak in the scalding hot water. 15 minutes later, she was toweling her hair dry in her bedroom, It was just after 2:00 AM in California. The time zone difference was insufferable and made it very hard to hold quick conversations with her friends. They’d decided that email would be best, they’d email at least twice a week, and as Georgia toweled off, she saw an email from her closest friend. 

She smiled as she read through it, happy that even though they’d been separated by this move, they were still friends. She elaborated on previous points that Georgia had questioned, complained about practices and homework… overall it was lighthearted and Georgia responded in kind. Eventually she wandered downstairs, phone upstairs with her homework, and she helped set the table. Her parents had prepared an American styled stir fry. Tofu nicely sautéed, zucchini, peppers, and snow peas all tossed and sautéed, served over top white rice. They caught up over dinner, her parents would have to go to Tokyo on Sunday to prepare for three days working in the office. They planned on cooking and storing several dishes for Georgia so she wouldn’t have to worry about cooking. 

“If you want to have a friend stay with you, they can stay in the guest room, we are almost done setting it up.” Her mother added, knowing that Georgia wasn’t a fan of being home alone. Georgia nodded, not sure who she’d invite, Safiya made sense, since she lived so close. Georgia wasn’t sure how comfortable she’d be doing that, since she’d literally just met her the day before. She’d talk to her about it in person to gauge her reaction. 

“If only we had a dog, then we’d never leave Georgie alone!” Her father added, talking with his mouth full of rice. “We won’t be moving for at least a decade, your mother and I work from home most days and could take care of a dog. Then, when we are gone, you just need to walk it before and after school.” He finally swallowed his food. Georgia and her mother rolled their eyes. 

They wouldn’t get a dog, probably, because they knew that only two walks a day for a puppy would be very difficult. Maybe the Miyagi prefecture had dog walking companies the same way every city in the US had at least 5 companies. She helped clean up after the meal, and kissed her parents as she bid them goodnight. Returning to her room, she opened her backpack and began the hour and a half of homework she had left over. Glancing at her phone, she saw several texts waiting for her. 

Safiya had sent 2, Tsukishima sent 1, and Ai sent 3.

S: Since tomorrow is Friday, we should go somewhere after school, thoughts? 

S: Ai & Kiyoko want you to invite the volleyball boys, I told them there were 4 first years. 

G: Sure, what did you have in mind? I don’t know if they’d be interested. They have a practice match Saturday. 

T: Friday night, let’s try to have all of our notes written out so Saturday isn’t spent on collecting information for the report. 

G: Sounds good. I’ll make an outline for it. 

A: hiiiiiiiii <3 

A: Did you invite the boys yet

A: We can make it a quick thing, grab takoyaki after school. 

G: I’ll ask Tsukishima now, but they’ve got a game Saturday, so it probably will only be the 4 of us. 

G: This isn’t school oriented, so feel free to say no, my teammates want to do something after practice with the first year volleyball players. They suggested Takoyaki? Let me know if you 4 would be interested. 

Thirty minutes passed, Georgia was working on her math homework, not her favorite subject, when her phone buzzed again. 


	4. Never Forget Your Breakfast

Checking her phone after solving for x, Georgia saw that Tsukishima had responded to her.

T: They agreed to it, we can walk to the shop together after practice. 

G: Thanks! See you tomorrow! 

Sending a message to Ai soon after, Georgia didn't even think about how this positive reaction from Tsukishima Kei would inspire her imaginative friend.

G: They’re in, they’ll meet us after practice. 

A: YAAAAY

A: Sounds like a plan

A: You’re the best!! 

Thirty more minutes passed and Georgia finished her homework. Stretching before getting into bed, Georgia organized all of her things before she went to brush her teeth. Homework was packed back into her backpack, and everything laid out for her early morning. 

The next morning came early, again, they had their dry land practice. The bike ride was just as hard as it had been the day before, but she didn’t worry about getting lost as much. 

Everyone was just as tired as Georgia, except Ai, she looked too excited. Bouncing from foot to foot, she stretched and hummed excitedly looking at Georgia with an excited smile.

“So, when are you going to introduce your boyfriend to your parents?” Everyone’s eyes shifted to Georgia, her confused face brought laughter bubbling up and out of her, despite her tiredness.

“Boyfriend? Who am I dating?” Georgia responded, head cocked, absolute confusion written all over her face. The team launched into incoherent babble and laughter, of course Georgia wasn’t dating anyone. Ai was getting ahead of herself in a bad way. 

“Ok, Ai, just because Georgia is able to talk to boys without combusting doesn’t mean she’s dating them. Maybe one day you’ll understand that.” Ichika teased Ai, as everyone did kinetic stretches before lifting. 

An hour of lifting completed, Georgia was red faced and her muscles were immediately beginning to feel fatigued. The team was once again stretching, they were about to go on an hour jog, Coach Yuna in the lead. Georgia joined up with Sara as the two kept a quick tempo ahead of most of their team. Georgia hadn’t gotten to talk to Sara much, so between breathing and groaning, the two swapped stories. Sara talked about how much she loved being a goalie, and how much it sucked to share her time in her final year, but she also understood how important it was for future teams. She had to step back to allow the team to grow and outperform previous years. Then, she talked about how they’d finished last term, second place in the Miyagi prefecture. They hadn’t qualified for nationals and it had nearly broken Akane and Himari’s hearts. She told Georgia about the pact the team made after the loss, they’d make it to Nationals before the third years graduated, and they’d win at least one game. 

“That’s an awesome goal, I will definitely help you all achieve it!” Georgia responded enthusiastically. “My club team finished third in the US just before I moved to Japan, we worked from being #10 to #3 in just one year. So, I know that we can easily win our Prefecture and even Nationals!!” Her enthusiasm made Sara laugh. They were now at the halfway point, Coach Yuna was waiting for them up ahead, underneath a large tree. 

“Good pace, good pace Sara & Georgia. Since you kept a pretty good clip going there, you can take a minute or two and head back to the locker room to get ready, you won’t have to do the punishment calisthenics that those slackers will have to do.” Coach had a gleam in her eye that made the two girls shudder. They could barely see their teammates creating the hill, stretching their tight calves, and rolling their shoulders, they left for school before their allotted break time was over. They weren’t talented runners, but they had good form and could keep a good pace up over long distances. 

As they rounded the corner onto the school yard, they heard the squeak of sneakers on hard wood and balls smacking against skin. Instead of investigating, they finished their run diligently at the water fountain in between the volleyball gym and the pool. Sticking her whole head into the stream, Georgia soaked her face to try and cool off. Her chest heaving as she then walked cool down circles outside the pool’s entrance. Sara laughed at her antics.

“I told you that you didn’t need to try to keep up with me for the last mile. And you definitely didn’t have to sprint at the end.” 

“Yeah, but I wanted it to be over faster, so I went faster so I could stop running.” Georgia finally plopped down next to Sara, and began stretching her tight legs out, listening to Sara tease her. 

“Since last term, I needed to start doing something other than just polo since I haven’t playing consistently in games. I found a lot of joy in running long distances. I want to work up to an ultra marathon run. It was really hard at first, but now, running long distances is my thing.” She smiled softly up at the sky. “I love water polo, and this year has confirmed that, but I know that my role in the pool is different now, because Safiya is the perfect goalie. I will still play this season, but not at the same amount as last year. Which is fine! But, in the beginning it was really hard to swallow.” With that, she looked at Georgia, smiling sadly now. Georgia was awestruck with the passion and empathy and raw humanness that the third year spoke with. Sara loved water polo and was devastated that she was no longer the sole goalie on the team, but she also understood the importance of having another goalie and how crucial it was that this goalie was talented.

“You’re so cool Sara. I can’t wait to see you in action.” Georgia sighed, then shivered. Her body was finally cooling off in the fall morning air, standing up, she stretched again and helped Sara to her feet. They both turned to see if their teammates were close to catching up, they weren’t, so they decided to go back into the pool area to stay warm while they waited.

As they turned to walk into the pool, a volleyball bounced out into the courtyard, rolling to a stop at Georgia’s feet. Looking up from the ball to the doorway, she saw the loud, short orange-haired hit from last night, Hinata Shoyo? He was about to run out and grab the ball when he saw that he wasn’t alone in the courtyard. 

“Georgia! Good morning!” He called, as Georgia picked the ball up from the ground. Behind him, she saw Tsukishima peak his head out at your name. 

Not letting Hinata get any closer or further the conversation because she felt like she smelled horrible, she cocked her arm back and launched the ball back into the gym. Before it could cross the doorway, Hinata Shoyo had leapt into the air and caught it beautifully. Georgia and Sara’s mouths hung wide open. 

“That’s a pretty cool talent. We’ve gotta get back to practice!” Georgia made a peace sign and walked into the natatorium before she could embarrass herself further. 

What they didn’t see was the crimson blush that overcame the poor kid, a girl called him cool and talented. 

“She’s just nice, don’t let it get to your head.” Tsukishima teased, monotone like usual, but at his remark, everyone turned to look at him. Why did he know that? Or, why did he care?

“Tsukishima, when are you going to introduce us to your girlfriend?” Nishinoya whined, Tanaka joined him in the verbal assault. Yamaguchi paled when he saw the thunderous expression the middle blocker had, Tadashi gulped in fear and tugged his teammates to safety. Grumbling, Tsukishima muttered that just because Georgia was his friend it didn’t mean that they were dating. Daichi and Sugawara watched with a funny glint in their eyes. Tsukishima had mentioned something in passing that the volleyball team should support the girls water polo team. There was definitely something more happening, or at least they wanted something to happen, it would give them actual fodder to tease the tall boy about.

What no one could’ve possibly known, was that at that moment Tsukishima Kei was seriously thinking about the brute strength used to throw the volleyball. Smirking, in his head so that no one would comment, he was interested to see a water polo game if that sort of power was going to be used. 

The day went slowly, Georgia struggled with staying awake in her math class, she’d forgotten to bring breakfast with her that morning so she was running low on energy. Tsukishima noticed immediately that her energy was lagging, and surreptitiously poked his classmate in the arm to wake her up. As soon as his pointer finger touched Georgia’s bicep, she jolted awake, almost flinching, all of her muscles tensed and he felt the strength in her arm. He whispered, as the math teacher talked, facing the whiteboard, “You don’t look as energetic as usual. What’s wrong?” 

“I forgot breakfast, so I’m running low on energy after practice. I wish I had a coffee or something, then I could last until lunch.” She was just as quiet as him, no one noticed their interaction, they disturbed no one. Kei reached into his pocket and pulled out a box of mints, passing it to Georgia he motioned for her to take one.

“These help me keep awake since they’re so minty, and the sugar might help.” He explained, as Georgia took two mints, knowing she’d need at least two to get through until lunch, she mouthed a thank you to Kei and popped one in her mouth. Somehow immediately looking more awake. Math ended and they had a few minutes until the next class, she stood and stretched, trying to shake the sleepiness from her body. 

“Yamaguchi, do you have any energy bars on you?” Tsukishima asked his friend, and Georgia watched as he pulled one out and handed it to his friend. Smacking her face lightly, Georgia tried to wake herself up fully. 

“Georgia, you ok?” Safiya asked, her friends had migrated to the back of the classroom to chat in the interim. 

“Yeah, I’m just crashing. I forgot my breakfast after practice this morning so I’m running on fumes. Tsukishima gave me some mints earlier to keep me alive through math, but I already ate them, so I’m worried about literature. I think I could do it if I could stretch during class, but it’s so quiet that I can’t help but get sleepy.” Georgia summarized for her friends, looking embarrassed because of her stupidity. 

“Georgia! Why didn’t you tell us? We would’ve shared ours?!” Kiyoko exclaimed, shocking Georgia with her adamant tone. 

“I know, but I thought I’d make it to lunch, I’m excited, mom made it last night!” Her friends rolled their eyes at this. Of course she’d thought that. To their surprise, a long arm interrupted their circle, proffering an energy bar. 

“Don’t fall asleep again, it’ll make working on our project bothersome.” Tsukishima stood before Georgia, Yamaguchi’s energy bar in hand, staring rather menacingly at Georgia, almost daring her to fight him on this. She took the bar and thanked him profusely. 

Yamaguchi, Ai, Safiya, and Kiyoko stared wide-eyed at the interaction. What was going on? Yamaguchi managed to snap a picture of the two, Tsukishima looking annoyed and Georgia shoving the energy bar voraciously into her mouth. Not a flattering picture of either of them, but still an important picture, for some reason, Kei cared about her. 

The bell rang and everyone returned to their seats, Georgia folded the wrapper up and threw it away before returning to her seat. Before the teacher walked in and while everyone was facing forward, she quickly bent over Tsukishima’s shoulder, hand gently placed between his shoulder blades.“Thank you!” She whispered, and before his brain could register anything, she was sitting in her seat, facing forward, more awake and incredibly attentive, as if she hadn’t been falling asleep the lesson prior. Tsukishima didn’t blush or get nervous as he thought about the interaction, his immediate thought was _how annoying,_ but he brushed that away when he re-analyzed the situation. She was being considerate, had she thanked him any louder or done so from a further distance, someone else would’ve noticed. Georgia was considerate and discreet, two more points in her favor.

The rest of the day went by in a blur, lunch was delicious, the six students from 1-4 were joined by the two other volleyball freshmen boys, Kageyama and Hinata. The eight students chatted and enjoyed their food, Tsukishima revealed his snarkier side to Georgia, which made her laugh. It was who he normally was around Hinata and Kageyama, and no one had ever openly laughed at his rude behavior or attitude. But, no one commented on this, because Georgia openly laughed or giggled at most of what involved Hinata and everything Ai said. 

“Hinata, how do you jump so high? I’m so bad at getting off the ground.” Georgia asked, as they packed their lunches up and began their slow return to their classrooms. 

“I just can! I want to get up there, so I jump!” He said a lot of other words and sounds, but Georgia didn’t understand him, she turned to Yamaguchi.

“Maybe it’s because Japanese is not my first or secondary language, but what did the bit after “so I jump” mean?” Her clear concern and worry made Yamaguchi blush, she wanted to be a good friend and knew she had a language barrier, he stammered, trying to reassure her that Hinata wasn’t speaking any language at the end, just making noises. His explanation made Georgia laugh, and he began to disagree with Hinata, she wasn’t a witch, but she was probably some other creature. 

The group of athletes enjoyed eating lunch not alone, and talked about their plans for after practice. Georgia asked Hinata about the upcoming practice game and struggled to understand him. Luckily Yamaguchi was there to provide translations, since everything she was missing wasn’t really Japanese. 

“Idiot, you keep stressing her out. Try talking normally.” Kiyoko muttered, punching him in the shoulder. They’d just met, and Kiyoko’s true colors were coming through. Hinata had to rub his shoulder, the spot a little painful after the tiny hit him.

“It’s ok! I will learn & get better!” Georgia responded, with a smile. The girls dove into an excited babbling when Ai brought up that they’d have enough bodies to scrimmage and run real routes in the afternoon. 

“Georgia, you’re the center defender, right?” Ai asked, feigning innocence.

“Yes, but didn’t you know that?” Georgia responded, taking a bit out of her sandwich. 

“That means you’ll either be against Sakura or Eto. Eto is the center for the boys team, and a second year.” Georgia looked up sharply at Ai, she was scheming again.

“How big is he?” Georgia asked, masking her curiosity and also pretending she didn’t recognize the mischievous glint in her friend’s eyes. 

“He’s tall, maybe 170 cm, and he’s pretty jacked. We will have the guys team chill out.” Ai’s mouth quirked upwards into a smirk. 

“I mean, they haven’t been practicing, so we will be better off.” Safiya jumped in, giving Georgia time to chew and swallow. 

“Yeah, I can take him. No problem. If he plays the way I think someone like him will play, I can crush him.” With Georgia’s thoughtful response, Hinata cheered this attitude on, her teammates looked at her a little confused, and Tsukishima had zero doubts about her ability to destroy whoever this unidentified male water polo player was. Georgia made some sweeping assumptions, but she knew she couldn’t out wrestle him, and she assumed she could throw him off balance. With those assumptions in place, she knew she could shut him down. 


	5. Scrimmage & Takoyaki

The day went by slowly, but Georgia was no longer falling asleep in classes. The end of the day had the girls running to the club room and then to the locker room to get ready for practice. Georgia and Safiya were the first to make it onto the deck, and they immediately put their caps on and began doing dryland warmup stretches. Waiting for the rest of the girls team to come join the two of you, the boys team comes onto the deck. There are five boys, including the new girls’ manager, no doubt in Georgia’s mind when she sees the tallest and most broad one. He was definitely the center and a small speck of doubt entered Georgia’s psyche, but she brushes it off when she overhears how overconfident he is. He won’t know what to do when she throws him off balance. 

Warm ups and most of the practice goes swimmingly, and as all of the girls are a little out of breath, the boys finish messing around in the diving well and put on their white caps, the girls are given the basic blue practice caps. Sara is the opposing team’s goalie, Yui and Kiyoko join them to make it even, and one boy sits on the sidelines. Coach Yuna finally grabbed everyone’s attention and explained how it would work, they’d play 4 quarters 5 minutes each quarter and Coach Yuna would referee the practice match, exclusions would be the same, but she’d also call fouls and reset plays so the girls could set up properly. Everyone was excited to get started on the scrimmage, so setting up for the ball drop, the girls practically vibrated on the walls. With the whistle, they were off! Kiyoko and Ai did the swim off, fingertips apart, Kiyoko won the drop, but their opponents’ success didn’t last long. Georgia had followed up behind Ai, and immediately applied man-to-man pressure on Ai, stealing the ball away before she could pass it off to Yui or one of the boys. Georgia was able to protect the ball as the rest of her team swam down to set up an offense. Luckily, with Kiyoko guarding her, Georgia was able to turn her on a dime and swim to join her teammates, sending a tight pass to Ichika who was at the 4 position, Georgia took her spot at 3, and Ai drove down to the two-meter line, getting ahead of her defender, Enji. The wet pass plopped beautifully in front of her and Georgia didn’t even see the wet shot leave her hands, it was too smooth!

They lined up at the midpool point, Georgia was officially guarding the men’s center and instead of locking up with him and facing him head on, she called for an M drop slough and played behind him. Sakura ran the drop beautifully, her long body was perfect for covering the space between the point and the center. Keeping her hips at the surface of the water, Georgia intensely tread water, pushing aggressively against his low back and hips. Each hand would hit with the butt of her hand, throwing him off balance and pushing him towards the three top-line defenders. Any time the ball got passed into the center, she’d whip her hands above water and spread her arms wide, matching his arms so he couldn’t backhand or turn her body to shoot. The girls’ starting line continued to score, and shut down the boy’s team each play. They scored a few goals against Safiya, but they were lucky breaks. The end of the practice match had Georgia’s side winning by 5 points. They ran several man-up plays and even fewer man-down plays. Cooling down, they relaxed and stretched out, exhausted. They showered and waited for Coach Yuna in the club’s room. 

The team meeting went well, they reviewed the plans, and then assigned numbers for the rest of the season, that being said, everyone already had their numbers except Georgia. Her options were limited to 12, 9, and 22, which made her decision-making easy. She’d always played number 9 in seasons past, so she immediately chose number nine. It had sentimental value at this point, and to be honest, when she first started playing and could consider her number, she’d wanted to be number 16, because it was the number 4 squared and 4 was the number 2 squared. Therefore, 16 was a perfect square and it made the weird part of her brain very happy. But, 16 had been taken by an older girl on the team, so she chose 9, because it was 3 squared and it somehow made her happier. Since then, 9 had become her favorite number and she had never relinquished ownership over the number. 

They wrapped up the meeting with a reminder that the following Tuesday they would play a practice match against Date Tech, Thursday a game against Seijoh, and the following weekend they had a round Robin tournament in Tokyo. This week had apparently been the ease in for second term, and the rest of the season would be a whirlwind. Either way, Georgia was incredibly excited! As the four first years left the room and went to wait for their volleyball friends, Ai informed Georgia that the round robin tournament in Tokyo was mainly for practice, since they wouldn’t actually play any of the teams until they made it to Nationals. The important games this coming week we’re the “practice games” against Date Tech and Seijoh, because they were in their sectional, and they’d have to defeat at least one, if not both, to make it to Nationals. This information made Georgia tremble with excitement. They were going to win and they were going to keep winning, because that was the best part of everything. One more quarter, one more game, one more tournament, that’s all the girls wanted. They didn’t realize it yet, but their love of the game was going to drive them to some amazing places. 

They heard the boys before they saw them, Hinata was louder than anyone Georgia had met since moving, an unknown voice yelled at him to calm down and not waste energy, he sounded older. The four first year girls turned to watch their friends and their team appear Tsukishima looked very put upon, Yamaguchi looked excited, Kageyama was clearly confused, and Hinata was excitedly bouncing all over the place. Georgia waved to her friends, and Hinata leapt even higher into the air and called her name. 

“GEORGIA!!!! Will you come to our practice match tomorrow?” Somehow he was right in front of the girl, and it made her flinch back in surprise, but she smiled and affirmed that she would try to, if her practice allowed it. She then recognized Daichi, the one that their captain was enamored with, and he looked fed up with Hinata. The rest of the team appeared to be good natured and laughed at the antics they were all too familiar with. 

“C’mon, let’s get moving so those of us with real plans for the night can actually complete them before tomorrow.” Tsukishima stated, already off campus and walking towards the shop. Georgia grabbed her bike and jogged after the tall boy, excitedly telling him about the Tuesday and Thursday games. No one else saw the smile that he cracked for her, since they were too busy with their mouths agape at the fact that Tsukishima was even being social with any other living human, willingly. The remaining 6 first years charged after the pair, not wanting to lose out on the takoyaki. 

He smiled at her excitement, it wasn’t annoying like Hinata, it was realistic, she saw these games as tests. Then, the group caught up and he hid the smile from them, but didn’t have to feign interest as the ever enthusiastic Ai told the heroic tale of the scrimmage they’d had during practice. Everyone noticed, including Kageyama, that Georgia’s left cheek was bright red, and the mark wasn’t going away. If it had been the cold, both cheeks would’ve turned rosy, and if she’d smacked one cheek, it would’ve faded by now. It was then, during Ai’s storytelling she revealed that Georgia had maneuvered around Eto (the men’s center player) and caught an unlucky elbow to the cheek. The volleyball team looked super concerned and Georgia shrugged it off, saying she’d been hit worse before, which didn’t ease their worries. Apparently, Eto had get so guilty about the elbow to the face, that the next 4 possessions he’d played so meekly that Georgia felt so insulted she kicked off of him during a counter attack and told him that they were now even and he could stop playing like a baby. 

Safiya and Kiyoko chuckled again at this, Georgia rolled her eyes, and the volleyball boys other than Tsukishima stared at her open mouthed like fish out of water. 

“What? Seriously guys, it doesn’t hurt. It’s just red, my skin can be sensitive. He was being so lame, how does he expect me to prepare for next week's games and the tournament if he goes soft on me? So, when I realized telling him I was fine wasn’t working, I kicked off his thigh and swam down the pool and scored. When I came back to him, I told him we were even, and if he didn’t start playing like he had originally, I’d do that same maneuver 10 more times.” Georgia huffed the last bit, truly not trying to brag about scoring. She loved scoring, but she knew her position didn’t always mean she was the player putting the ball in the back of the net. Her teammates laughed at her, Hinata asked at least twenty questions about the sport, to which Georgia tried to answer, but Ai interrupted each one to say “just come to our games this week and you’ll see.” He finally agreed to come, as long as the times didn't conflict with volleyball practices. 

A few minutes later they made it to the shop, the streetlights had come on moments before, and Georgia’s stomach growled as they entered the shop. She couldn’t help it, she was hungry! She’d never had takoyaki before, and also didn’t quite know what it was. Instead of forcing her to read the menu, Safiya told her which one to order, because the toppings were the best. Before she bit into it, still not knowing what it was, Tsukishima intervened. 

“Do you have any food allergies?” She paused immediately and thought through every single food she’d ever eaten and shook her head no. He nodded and finally after the entire walk from school and the 5 minutes it had taken to get the hot dish, she popped one of the fried balls into her mouth. Everyone was laughing and talking and eating, no one paying attention to Georgia, other than Tsukishima, who noticed a hilarious array of emotions cross her face. The major emotion he saw was confusion and then intrigue and then acceptance. Maybe takoyaki wasn’t her favorite item to eat, but watching her reaction brought him a good amount of joy. She finished off her takoyaki along with her friends, and they began to split up on their way home. As the group parted ways, Safiya and Georgia were walking close, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were slowly walking behind the girls at a slower pace. 

“So, I know we just met and this is really weird to ask. But, my parents will be in Tokyo Sunday night through part of the week, and I don’t do really well alone at night. Would you be ok to stay over for the evening only for a few nights?” Georgia asked Safiya, not knowing that there was an audience behind her, she confessed her inability to sleep in an empty house. Tsukishima was intently eavesdropping on the conversation, he didn’t care, but for some reason he needed to know what they were saying. Then Yamaguchi gave a lame excuse to have to leave him and turn back, Tsukishima had a feeling he was training more, but he knew Yamaguchi would tell him eventually about it. 

“Of course! I’ll have to talk to my parents, but at the very least, I can spend the nights with you so you’re not alone!” Safiya responded with a smile. 

Georgia was thankful, she was feeling much lighter now that she'd asked her friend for this favor. The rest of the conversation focused on their families. Safiya had two younger siblings, Amir and Aaliyah, they were both under the age of 10, and had more energy than their entire team. Each first year eventually said goodnight as they parted ways, it was nice to have such good neighbors and friends. Georgia knew she had to introduce her parents to her friends’ parents so that they could create their own little friend circle out here. Opening the door to their home, she was greeted by her parents' cheerful exclamations, Georgia smiled brightly, she was one lucky girl!

  
  



	6. The Weekend

The best part, Georgia decided, of Saturday practice, was that it didn’t start before 8:00 in the morning. The four hour practice had more swimming than the previous practices, and in the final hour, the boys’ team arrived and another scrimmage and basic gameplay. Working with Eto, Georgia focused on positioning and guarding against different offensive movements, she worked around Eto playing in front of him instead of behind like she had the day prior. Afterwards, the starting line ran through their plays and movements, learning how to pass and communicate better with the girls. After a while, the practice finally came to an end and Coach recommended that the team hurry up and get over to the volleyball game as it was just starting. 

Showering briefly, but not bothering to do her hair, Georgia got dressed in what she wore to practice, a pair of dark grey joggers, running shoes, a random tournament long sleeve shirt that was tie dyed blue and white, and a dark blue windbreaker. She hollered for her friends to hurry up, because the practice match was about to start. 

Jogging, her hair luckily no longer dripping wet, Georgia entered the volleyball gym and spotted the two managers for the Karasuno’s volleyball team. 

“Hi, I’m Georgia, where can I sit to watch? My teammates are coming in a bit too, to watch. There will be about ten of us.” The dark haired manager smiled, and Georgia immediately felt herself blush, this manager was clearly an angel. She pointed towards a safe area and asked if you needed chairs, immediately saying that you could sit on the floor. 

Both teams were lightly warming up, and Georgia hadn’t noticed anything about either team, since she was too nervous about finding somewhere to sit. Once she sat, back to the wall, she saw her friends warming up, Tsukishima’s fingers were taped, and they all looked so cool. Georgia’s eyes were like saucers, watching her friends do the coolest things, in her eyes. She turned and watched their opponents and immediately paled. They were giants in comparison, their white and green jerseys made them look bigger. The rest of her team came and sat with her, Himari sat beside her. 

“That’s Date Tech, we play their water polo team on Tuesday. Our boys here beat them in the spring. They’re known for their iron wall defense.” Himari smiled at Georgia’s open mouth wonder, as she watched Date Tech’s tall, pale giant jump high. He was intimidating.

Daichi looked over at their cheering section, and smiled softly to himself. It was definitely a first, but he enjoyed having the support of people who cared. Nishinoya turned to Tsukishima, “Are you going to impress your girlfriend today? It looks like she is incredibly interested in Aone Takanobu. Be careful he might steal your girl.” Tsukishima turns and sees Georgia staring at the teams, he shrugs at the libero.

“I don’t understand why you keep insisting on the fact that Georgia’s my girlfriend. I could be dating Safiya. Or, Yamaguchi could be dating Georgia. Why don’t you ever tease him?” His quiet, monotone monologue shocked his teammates, he’d never spoken so much about anything other than insults. His words did turn everyone’s heads first towards Safiya, who didn’t notice, and then to Yamaguchi, their imaginations creating scenarios where the two couples go on double dates. 

Everyone bowed and they got ready to play. Georgia was shocked to see that Hinata, the tiny orange haired baby was going up against the tall white haired boy. She then turned to Himari, a confused smile on her face.

“How does men’s volleyball work?” Himari smiled, and proceeded to explain what she could as the practice match, which actually turned out to be multiple games. At the end of the two matches, Georgia’s eyes were alight with such excitement, any onlooker would’ve assumed that she played volleyball instead of water polo. The gameplay had definitely sparked a flame of interest in the American girl. 

Filing out of the gym, she said goodbye to everyone other than Safiya. The two of you planned on waiting for Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, to keep themselves occupied Georgia and Safiya began passing the ball that Safiya brought with her to practice. Without noticing the Date Tech team leaving the gym, Georgia and Safiya set themselves up at a far distance to get a good passing distance, about 15 yards, Georgia stood near the open door to the gym. Safiya threw the ball much harder, as she’d backed up another 5 yards, but accidentally launched it too high over Georgia’s head for her to catch. 

The measly jump that Georgia attempted, had her fingers tip the ball, but she couldn’t stop it, and she swore under her breath in English as she missed the pass. Instead of hearing the ball hit the ground, she heard it hit flesh and she looked up in panic, who did they hit!? Instead of seeing an injured individual with a red face, Georgia’s eyes looked upward into the face of the tall white haired boy on Date Tech. He’d caught the ball and offered it wordlessly to Georgia. His teammates split around him and continued walking to the bus, as if he was an immovable rock in a fast moving river. Georgia retrieved the ball and thanked him profusely. 

Being bold, right as he turned to rejoin his team, Georgia peeped, “If you want to see me actually catch the passes, we play at Date Tech on Tuesday around 5:30 PM. I’m number 9!” Thanking him again Georgia bowed and then ran to join Safiya by the bike rack. They figured it was better to stop passing, increase the ball got loose and someone less coordinated got hit. 

“What did he say?” Safiya asked, she’d watched the interaction, unsure what was going on, and watched as Georgia ran towards her, the boy’s eyes had followed her friend. She’d even been perceptive enough to notice a tiny smile creep on his face as he finally returned to his teammates and got on the bus. 

“Absolutely nothing! His hand was big enough to palm the ball and he could probably easily toss it around. Too bad he loves volleyball so much.” Georgia sighed. It was weird to her that so many more people played volleyball than water polo, but she could deal with that! 

Suddenly, Hinata was standing beside them, a huge grin on his face. 

“Did you see me?!” Georgia and Safiya laughed as they congratulated Hinata on his playing and Georgia exclaimed about how cool volleyball was, she’d never watched before. The two water polo players enjoyed Hinata’s responses as he enthusiastically talked about his play and how cool Aone and their iron wall is. Tsukishima and the rest of the team appeared behind him and they thanked the girls for coming to watch. With these words, everyone parted ways and headed home, the four neighbors walked and chatted together, unknowingly fueling a brand new fantasy for the upperclassmen. 

Two hours later, Tsukishima knocked on Georgia’s front door, her mother welcoming the tall high schooler into their home. He noticed immediately that the McNeal's house was organized but very warm. Her mother was much shorter than him, probably only a bit taller than Georgia, she wore tortoise shell glasses, her brown hair was loosely braided and she wore a comfortable blue dress and house slippers. He heard a man’s voice from deeper within the house, not realizing that they were speaking English at first, he silently entered their home and slipped his shoes off. As he looked up, after removing his shoes, he saw his project partner coming down the stairs, the same clothes she’d worn earlier, except she now wore a large dark blue sweatshirt and her hair was dry. 

“Mom, this is Tsukishima Kei, to be polite, we will call him Tsukishima, that is his family name. We have to work on our Japanese Literature project, so we will be up here working, is that ok?” Georgia asked her mom in English, Tsukishima heard his name and squinted aggressively, what were they saying? Georgia and her family would definitely force him to learn and study English better than he would’ve otherwise. Her mom responded affirmatively, requesting that she leave the door open. 

“Ok! Follow me Tsukishima, we are going to study in my room. I prepared an outline for myself in English, so you might have better insight on the Japanese side. But, here’s what I did so far…” Georgia continued explaining to Tsukishima about what she’d set up for them today, and the two worked for the following four hours on their project. As the two of them wrapped up their work and finished the paper side of the project, Georgia’s mom came into the room with two plates of food. She’d made two heaping plates of a Mexican inspired rice bowl with beans and ground beef and pico de Gallo. After thanking her mom, Georgia explained to Tsukishima what he’d been served.

“You’re allowed to eat up here?” He asked dubiously. 

“Probably not, but since we are working on this project, we have some leeway that allows us to eat dinner up here.” Georgia urged Tsukishima to eat more, telling him he’d never get big if he only ate like a bird, before finishing her own plate of food. When she realized Tsukishima would only eat ¾ of the food, she took their plates downstairs to wash. As the blonde haired boy sat alone in her room, he looked around and examined how it was set up. It looked fresh and new, probably because she hadn’t been living in it for very long. He laid on the floor and put his hand to his stomach, he’d never eaten that much in one sitting when not at home. Usually when he was with his teammates, he’d ignore their comments about his peckish ways, but since the next day was Sunday and he could digest overnight, and he definitely didn’t want to offend anyone, he ate more than usual. 

When Georgia returned, they finished the presentation portion of their project and printed what they needed to print and packed everything up. They’d been much more productive than they’d anticipated, completely finishing their project due this coming Friday the Saturday before. Finally, standing up after hours of laborious studying and work for their project, Georgia stretched her arms above her head and began to help Tsukishima clean up their separate piles of paper and books in preparation for him to leave. Georgia had reached her open bedroom door and was about to see him to the front door, when words that Tsukishima never thought he’d ever utter left his mouth. 

“I overheard your conversation with Safiya, if you want, you can come over for dinner and to study together Monday night or whenever. You know, to repay you for tonight’s dinner.” He scratched the back of his head in faux casual complacency, when in reality, this was the tall, salty blonde at his most nervous. 

“That would be nice! It’s embarrassing, isn’t it? I’m old enough to not get scared about being home alone… but I just can’t get over myself!” She looked absolutely mortified that her cool new friend knew she was scared to be home alone, and another Tsukishima Kei impossibility happened, he gave her a reassuring smile. 

“Nothing to be embarrassed about, you’re in a new country and a new home, it would be more weird if you were super comfortable being alone in this new environment.” Georgia finally smiled back at Tsukishima, a real smile, not her nervous one, and then they walked downstairs, her asking about volleyball, and Tsukishima doing his best to answer her questions. After they parted at her front door, Georgia yawned nice and big, the clock read 8:00 PM, and she had nothing else that needed to get done that night, so she walked over to the couch to sit beside her parents while they watched a nature documentary. They were studying animals and their habitats or maybe they were just studying the details in each environment? Georgia wasn’t sure, she knew her Dad was leading a game development project, something new for him, but with his project management experience and his coding skills, his company had encouraged him to take a leadership role for their brand new venture, a massive world building game similar to Skyrim. Georgia knew little to nothing about video games, but she’d heard her father pitch this one or practice the pitch that she knew the words, but maybe not what they meant. She sat with her parents for another hour before she headed up to her own room. She was exhausted, practice, watching volleyball, studying…. her social meter was running empty and she knew that nothing good would come from her staying up any later. Before slipping into her bed, she applied a nice layer of lotion all over her body, the chlorine was drying her skin out and she didn’t like the itchiness of her dry skin against her sheets. Without anything else keeping her awake, once her head hit the pillows, Georgia was fast asleep. 

Sunday came and went in a blur for the girl. Her parents packed, cooked, and prepared the guest bedroom for Safiya. Everything was cleaned, organized, and several lists were made for Georgia. One for safety, one for emergency contacts, one for rules, one for what meals were where and how to reheat them, and so on and so forth. They trusted their only child, but they also worried constantly for her safety, had they still been in California, her remaining grandparent would’ve come over and stayed the few nights. But, here they were, pursuing their professional dreams in a completely different country far from their close friends and family. Not that they expected to be adult friendless for very long, but at the moment, their only acquaintances were in Tokyo. 

Their worries and fears were assuaged when they met the Mahmud family. They’d emigrated from Egypt to Japan for their jobs as well, and their daughter was the goalie on Georgia’s team. They sat for lunch and spoke in a smattering of English and Japanese, everyone enjoying themselves thoroughly, the Mahmuds both worked in ecology and biodiversity and were doing both research and monitoring and evaluation on the ecological biodiversity in the area and how policies were actually affecting the area. What felt like a forty-five minute lunch actually turned into a three hour ordeal where the four adults bonded over green initiatives and their daughters. Safiya and Georgia had long disappeared and were in Georgia’s room painting their nails and doing face masks. 

“I can’t believe you’ve never done this kind of face mask!” Safiya giggled, she’d just finished peeling and applying a bubble face mask to Georgia’s face and watched with glee at the expressions she made. 

“Ahhhh this feels so weird!!!!” Georgia groaned, she was happy, but feeling thousands of bubbles popping against her skin was a weird sensation. 

“Just wait, we can do a face mask Tuesday night after the game that’ll feel super good. I’ve always loved aesthetician things, like facials and skin care. I’m trying to get into hair care, but with all the chlorine I’m exposing my hair to, I don’t think I have the time or money to spend on keeping it perfectly healthy.” Georgia had never known this about her new friend, that being said, they’d only ever talked about sports and school and food. She was truly excited to learn more about her friend’s goals for the future. 

“I’d want to go to beauty school, and work in a spa, and then maybe get clinical with it. Maybe I could try to become a dermatologist? My parents might prefer that, but I will see what suits me best. I’ve always loved the YouTube videos of stylists and everything, so I think it could be fun!” Safiya was radiating with happiness, of course she’d pursue anything she wanted, and obviously her parents were going to support their darling daughter too. 

“What about you Georgia? What do you want to do?” Georgia paused, she’d not thought that far ahead, would she stay in Japan or return stateside. She didn’t know what she’d do, would she go to university in the US or Japan? She didn’t know! Her goals were more short term, win everything in water polo and graduate top of her class. She didn’t have any fine details figured out yet, and she wasn’t sure what she was passionate about either. She definitely wouldn’t follow in her parents’ footsteps, technology was cool, but it didn’t stir a passion within her. She loved languages and she loved learning about different and new cultures and histories, but she wasn’t sure what she could do with that. 

“I don’t know, I speak a lot of languages and I really like learning about different cultures and histories… so maybe something invoking that? I’ve never really thought about it.” Safiya laughed, she had a feeling that Georgia was going to do much cooler things with her career than any of her other friends. 

Finally, Safiya and her family left the McNeals very, very pleased with their new friends and neighbors! Of course their darling daughter would be safe and comfortable with such a loving family with such cool and awesome jobs. Georgia could tell that they were clearly fangirling over the Mahmuds, and she laughed a little bit at their enthusiasm. Eventually, they needed to depart, and Georgia saw them off. They’d left her chores to do, so she wouldn’t get too bored, and gave her too many kisses for such a short trip to really require. Georgia kissed them goodbye and waved until they were out of sight, then she locked her house up and went upstairs to go on her computer and investigate ways to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. 

She took personality tests, job placement quizzes, and googled videos on how to “know” what to do with her life. She was coming up short on all fronts. Then, she discovered a highly recommended Job Aptitude test through a YouTube personality talking about their experiences in American high school, and so Georgia took it, not expecting any real results. She answered preference questions, habits, how she handled conflict, and a quick would you rather work x or y. At the end, the quiz tabulated three potential career paths; university professor, international affairs delegate, and finally lawyer. She looked at the options, and then spent another thirty minutes looking up what international affairs meant and what all the terms meant. The more she dove, the more curious she became, and suddenly, it was 9:30 PM and her phone rang. 

“Hi honey! Just wanted to call and let you know we made it to our coworker’s home, they invited us over for dinner. Their son is a year older than you, you two would be great friends! Alrighty, don’t stay up too late! We love you!” And they were gone. Georgia rolled her eyes, what did they have going through their brains? Georgia wasn’t sure. Then Safiya texted her, she would be there in 5 minutes. Excellent! The several night sleepover was about to begin, and Georgia powered down her computer, threw on her pjs and waited downstairs to let her friend in. 

She appeared moments later, with several bags and pillows everywhere. 

“Mom insisted I commit fully to the next few days and live here, apparently she promised your mom that? I don’t know, parents are weird.” The two girls laughed and got settled in upstairs. They had to get to sleep early, they did have practice in the morning, and even if they were together, they couldn’t let themselves be too tired for the morning.


End file.
